Cigar Connoisseur vs. Cigar Enthusiast: Reviewing the Jose L. Piedra Petit Caballeros Cigar

Oxford Dictionary defines an Aficionado as “a person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about an activity, subject, or pastime,” and an Enthusiast as “a person who is very interested in a particular activity or subject.”

I ponder this as I smoke a Jose L. Piedra Petit Caballeros Cigar on this Eid holiday.

I love my co-hosts on Habano del Podcasto, as we all have very different personalities. I believe Tallham is the Cigar Aficionado, I’m the Cigar Enthusiast, and Adham, with about a year of cigar-smoking experience, is still a relatively new smoker. He could swing either way... pun intended!

So what’s the difference, you may ask? Well, an Enthusiast is interested in cigars, but the Aficionado marries that enthusiasm with a deep knowledge of cigars.

The thing is, I absolutely love cigars, coffee, dark chocolate, and being from Scotland, I probably would have been into whiskey and wine as well—but I never drank alcohol. Grok tells me these kinds of products are “artisanal pleasures,” and I’m happy to run with that. Over my 15 years of smoking cigars, I’ve tried a wide range, from Cubans to Dominicans to Nicaraguans. I also adore single-origin specialty coffee, especially from Espresso Lab and The Barn in Dubai, and Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow. Single-origin chocolates from Mirzam Chocolate Makers & The Coffee Lab in Dubai and Bare Bones & Hotel Chocolat in Glasgow also hold a special place in my heart.

But I have a MAJOR CONFESSION TO MAKE.

While I love all of these things, I can’t for the life of me get all the nuanced tasting notes from cigars that Tallham can (check his reviews here). Nor do I pick up those descriptions listed by Espresso Lab for their Panama Altieri Satori coffee, which costs AED 450 for 20g and has notes like “Coffee Blossom, Mango, Nectarine, Navel Orange, and Honeysuckle.” If I drank this as an espresso or V60, I’d probably just find it very smooth and fruity but wouldn’t be able to pick out mango or honeysuckle!

Similarly, Mirzam has a 72% dark chocolate with single-origin Tanzanian beans that lists tasting notes of red berries, chocolatey, and a slight touch of wood. They also offer a 65% Vietnam single-origin bar with notes of raspberry, grapes, sourdough, and apricot.

So... do I have an unrefined palate that I don’t get any of these notes—or maybe just one out of five? The answer is… MAYBE. I wonder if these folks, when eating a mango, think it tastes like a Colombian coffee or a Nicaraguan cigar! But I digress... let’s get back to the Jose L. Piedra Cigar I’m smoking.

Tallham might agree with the HalfWheel review of this cigar, which mentions aromas like barnyard, earth, leather, cedar, cocoa nibs, espresso beans, and cinnamon. The review continues with notes of peanut butter, cinnamon, earth, and leather in the first third. While I admire the precision of these reviews, come on… pencil lead? Am I really supposed to get pencil lead from this budget Cuban cigar? No chance.

Here’s my take: The Jose L. Piedra Petit Caballeros is a short-filler, budget cigar. It looks decent and feels quite light in the hand. It’s nice and smooth with a relatively light body, and it seems to fall on the light-to-medium strength spectrum. I found it smooth enough to enjoy with my morning coffee without it knocking me on my ass. The retrohale was pleasant and smooth, without the harshness some cigars have that those pesky aficionados like to call “pepper.”

I’d definitely keep a box of these for when I have time to relax with a coffee on the balcony.

My wife did take some nice pictures as I smoked it, but I can’t tell you the exact notes I picked up as it transitioned from the first to the second to the final third. What I can tell you is that I enjoyed it. It had a nice taste reminiscent of some other Cubans I’ve smoked, but sadly, no pencil lead!

Nerdy Stats:

• Cigar: Jose L. Piedra Petit Caballeros
• Format: Petit Corona
• Wrapper: Cuban
• Binder: Cuban
• Filler: Cuban
• Length: 4"
• Ring Gauge: 40
• Strength: Light-Medium
• Body: Smooth, with mild pepper
• Price Range: Budget-friendly

Conclusion:

I do enjoy reading reviews from cigar aficionados like Tallham, and for me, they serve the purpose of getting me excited to smoke a cigar, but that’s about it. If you want a technical review, then check out Tallham’s musings at… But if you want down-to-earth reviews from an Enthusiast like me, let me know, and I’ll write more!

Just don’t expect me to give you notes of hay from a cigar or notes of honeysuckle from my coffee or sourdough/wood from my chocolate!